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1. Who are we?
They are called The Human Rights Watch and they have over 400 staff members that consists of human rights professionals including country experts, lawyers, journalists, and academics of diverse backgrounds and nationalities
2. What do we do?
Their goal is to scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice
3. Where do we operate?
Some of their headquarters are located in New York City, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington D.C., and Zurich
4. When were we established?
They were established in 1978 by Robert L. Bernstein, Jeri Laber, and Aryeh Neier
5. How do we operate?
They conduct research and advocacy on human rights.  They also pressure governments, policy makers, and human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and they often work on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners.  They also publish more than 100 reports and briefings on human rights conditions in over 90 countries year
6. Why is our work important?
Their work is important because they help out many people and countries that are struggling with the rights that they deserve.  They help many children, refugees, migrants, and political prisoners

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1. They're a non-governmental organization
2. They're partnered up with 14 other organizations
3. They help out over 90 countries
4. They were established only 40 years ago and they've accomplished so much
5. They're known for their accurate fact-finding, impartial reporting, effective use of media, and targeted advocacy

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Human Rights: a right that is believed to belong justifiably to every person

Refugee: a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster

Migrant: a worker who moves from place to place to do seasonal work

Political Prisoner: a person imprisoned for their political beliefs or actions

Establish: to set up (an organization, system, or set of rules) on a firm or permanent basis

Advocacy: public support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy

Scrupulously: in a very careful and thorough way

Denounce: publicly declare to be wrong or evil

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“About.” Human Rights Watch, 21 Sept. 2018, www.hrw.org/about.

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Who We Are

Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world. We are roughly 550 plus people of 70-plus nationalities who are country experts, lawyers, journalists, and others who work to protect the most at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in wartime, to refugees and children in need. We direct our advocacy towards governments, armed groups and businesses, pushing them to change or enforce their laws, policies and practices. To ensure our independence, we refuse government funding and carefully review all donations to ensure that they are consistent with our policies, mission, and values. We partner with organizations large and small across the globe to protect embattled activists and to help hold abusers to account and bring justice to victims.

What We Do

Investigate: Our researchers work in the field in 100 some countries, uncovering facts that create an undeniable record of human rights abuses.

Expose: We tell the stories of what we found, sharing them with millions of social media and online followers each day. News media often report on our investigations, furthering our reach.

Change: We meet with governments, the United Nations, rebel groups, corporations, and others to see that policy is changed, laws are enforced, and justice is served.
We work on some of the world's biggest crises, such as:

Our Story

Together, we can use our influence - from advocating with world leaders to sharing the truth of what's happening on the ground - to help stop repression around the world.

Former Executive Director

Human Rights Watch was founded in 1978 as "Helsinki Watch," when we began investigating rights abuses in countries that signed the Helsinki Accords, most notably those behind the Iron Curtain. Since then, our work has expanded to five continents. We investigated massacres and even genocides, along with government take-overs of media and the baseless arrests of activists and political opposition figures. At the same time, we expanded our work to address abuses against those likely to face discrimination, including women, LGBT people, and people with disabilities. When families victimized by war crimes found no justice at home, we championed international justice and international courts. While we rely on in-person interviews, our research methods have also changed with the times, and today we use satellite imagery to track the destruction of villages and city blocks, and we mine big data for patterns in arrest rates or the deportation of immigrants. Everything we do circles back to our commitment to justice, dignity, compassion, and equality.

Read our full history here
How we conduct our research

What We Have Achieved

When it comes to ending abuses and bringing perpetrators to justice, some victories are big, and others are merely steps on a much longer journey to change. But each represents progress on the many issues we work on around the world.
Here are some examples of our impact:

What can you do? Stand with us and defend human rights.

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Would you like to read this page in another language? ✕ Close Human Rights Watch investigates and reports on abuses happening in all corners of the world. We are roughly 550 plus people of 70-plus nationalities who are country experts, lawyers, journalists, and others who work to protect the most at risk, from vulnerable minorities and civilians in wartime, to refugees and children in need.

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“Human Rights Watch.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Oct. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Watch.

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Former executive Director Kenneth Roth speaking at the 44th Munich Security Conference 2008

Human Rights Watch ( HRW) is an international non-governmental organization headquartered in New York City that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policymakers, companies, and individual human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners.

In 1997, Human Rights Watch shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. It played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions.

Human Rights Watch was co-founded by Robert L. Bernstein, Jeri Laber, and Aryeh Neier as a private American NGO in 1978, under the name Helsinki Watch, to monitor the then- Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Accords. Helsinki Watch adopted a practice of publicly " naming and shaming" abusive governments through media coverage and direct exchanges with policymakers. Helsinki Watch says that, by shining the international spotlight on human rights violations in the Soviet Union and its European partners, it contributed to the region's democratic transformations in the late 1980s.

Americas Watch was founded in 1981 while bloody civil wars engulfed Central America. Relying on extensive on-the-ground fact-finding, Americas Watch not only addressed perceived abuses by government forces but also applied international humanitarian law to investigate and expose war crimes by rebel groups. In addition to raising concerns in the affected countries, Americas Watch also examined the role played by foreign governments, particularly the United States government, in providing military and political support to abusive regimes.[citation needed ]

Asia Watch (1985), Africa Watch (1988) and Middle East Watch (1989) were added to what was known as "The Watch Committees". In 1988, these committees united under one umbrella to form Human Rights Watch.

In April 2021, Human Rights Watch released a report accusing Israel of apartheid and calling on the International Criminal Court to investigate "systematic discrimination" against Palestinians, becoming the first major international rights NGO to do so.

In August 2020, the Chinese government sanctioned HRW executive director Kenneth Roth-along with the heads of four other U.S.-based democracy and human rights organizations and six U.S. Republican lawmakers-for supporting the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement in the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests. The five organizations' leaders saw the sanctioning, whose details were unspecified, as a tit-for-tat measure in response to the earlier U.S. sanctioning of 11 Hong Kong officials. The latter step had in turn been a reaction to the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law in June. In October 2021, The New York Times reported that HRW left Hong Kong as a result of the Chinese sanctions, with the situation in Hong Kong henceforth to be monitored by HRW's China team. The decision to leave came amid a wider crackdown on civil society groups in Hong Kong.

On 8 March 2023, Bahrain canceled two HRW staff members' entry permit visas to attend the 146th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly. The permits were issued on 30 January 2023. Holding a constant observer status with IPU, HRW authorities had a permanent access to attend the organization's assemblies. Bahrain held the IPU Meeting from 11-15 March 2023.

Pursuant to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Human Rights Watch opposes violations of what the UDHR considers basic human rights. This includes capital punishment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. HRW advocates freedoms in connection with fundamental human rights, such as freedom of religion and freedom of the press. It seeks to achieve change by publicly pressuring governments and their policymakers to curb human rights abuses, and by convincing more powerful governments to use their influence on governments that violate human rights.

Human Rights Watch publishes research reports on violations of international human rights norms as set out by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and what it perceives to be other internationally accepted human-rights norms. These reports are used as the basis for drawing international attention to abuses and pressuring governments and international organizations to reform. Researchers conduct fact-finding missions to investigate suspect situations, also using diplomacy, staying in touch with victims, making files about public and individuals, providing required security for them in critical situations, and generating local and international media coverage. Issues HRW raises in its reports include social and gender discrimination, torture, military use of children, political corruption, abuses in criminal justice systems, and the legalization of abortion. HRW has documented and reported various violations of the laws of war and international humanitarian law, most recently in Yemen.

Human Rights Watch also supports writers worldwide who are persecuted for their work and in need of financial assistance. The Hellman/Hammett grants are financed by the estate of the playwright Lillian Hellman in funds set up in her name and that of her longtime companion, the novelist Dashiell Hammett. In addition to providing financial assistance, the Hellman/Hammett grants help raise international awareness of activists who have been silenced for speaking out in defence of human rights.

Nabeel Rajab helping an old woman after Bahraini police attacked a peaceful protest in August 2010

Each year, Human Rights Watch presents the Human Rights Defenders Award to activists who demonstrate leadership and courage in defending human rights. The award winners work closely with HRW to investigate and expose human rights abuses.

Human Rights Watch was one of six international NGOs that founded the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in 1998. It is also the co-chair of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, a global coalition of civil society groups that successfully lobbied to introduce the Ottawa Treaty, which prohibits the use of anti-personnel landmines.[citation needed ]

Human Rights Watch is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a global network of non-governmental organizations that monitor censorship worldwide. It also co-founded the Cluster Munition Coalition, which brought about an international convention banning the weapons. HRW employs more than 275 staff-country experts, lawyers, journalists, and academics-and operates in more than 90 countries around the world. Headquartered in New York City, it has offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Nairobi, Seoul, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington, D.C., and Zürich. HRW maintains direct access to the majority of countries it reports on. Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, Iran, Israel, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Venezuela are among the handful of countries that have blocked HRW staff members' access.

HRW's former executive director is Kenneth Roth, who held the position from 1993 to 2022. Roth conducted investigations on abuses in Poland after martial law was declared 1981. He later focused on Haiti, which had just emerged from the Duvalier dictatorship but continued to be plagued with problems. Roth's awareness of the importance of human rights began with stories his father had told about escaping Nazi Germany in 1938. He graduated from Yale Law School and Brown University.

Tirana Hassan became the group's executive director in 2023. Hassan is a qualified social worker who has worked with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children, and most recently as director of Amnesty International's Crisis Response Program. Hassan holds honors degrees in social work and law from Australia and a master's degree in international human rights law from Oxford University.

Comparison with Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are the only two Western-oriented[dubious ] non-governmental, international human rights organizations whose reports on human rights violations aim for comprehensive global coverage. The major differences lie in the groups' structure and methods for promoting change.

Amnesty International is a mass-membership organization. Mobilization of those members is the organization's central advocacy tool. Human Rights Watch's main products are its crisis-directed research and lengthy reports, whereas Amnesty International lobbies and writes detailed reports but also focuses on mass letter-writing campaigns, adopting individuals as " prisoners of conscience" and lobbying for their release. HRW openly lobbies for specific actions for other governments to take against human rights offenders, including naming specific individuals for arrest, or sanctions to be levied against certain countries, such as calling for punitive sanctions against the top leaders in Sudan who oversaw a killing campaign in Darfur. The group also called for human rights activists who had been detained in Sudan to be released.

HRW's documentations of human rights abuses often include extensive analyses of conflicts' political and historical backgrounds, some of which have been published in academic journals. AI's reports, on the other hand, tend to contain less analysis, instead focusing on specific abuses of rights.

In 2010, Jonathan Foreman wrote that HRW had "all but eclipsed" Amnesty International. According to Foreman, instead of being supported by a mass membership, as AI is, HRW depends on wealthy donors who like to see the organization's reports make headlines. For this reason, according to Foreman, it may be that organizations like HRW "concentrate too much on places that the media already cares about", especially Israel.

For the financial year ending June 2008, HRW reported receiving approximately US$44 million in public donations. In 2009, HRW said it received almost 75% of its financial support from North America, 25% from Western Europe and less than 1% from the rest of the world.

According to a 2008 financial assessment, HRW reports that it does not accept any direct or indirect funding from governments and is financed through contributions from private individuals and foundations.

Financier George Soros of the Open Society Foundations announced in 2010 his intention to grant US$100 million to HRW over ten years to help it expand its efforts internationally: "to be more effective", he said, "I think the organization has to be seen as more international, less an American organization." He continued, "Human Rights Watch is one of the most effective organizations I support. Human rights underpin our greatest aspirations: they're at the heart of open societies." The donation, the largest in HRW's history, increased its operating staff of 300 by 120 people.

Charity Navigator gave HRW a three-star rating for 2018. Its financial rating increased from three stars in 2015 to the maximum four as of 2016. The Better Business Bureau said HRW meets its standards for charity accountability.

Kenneth Roth and the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, February 2, 2012

Some notable current and former staff members of Human Rights Watch:

Robert L. Bernstein, founding chair emeritus

Neil Rimer, co-chair, international board of directors

Kenneth Roth, former executive director

Jan Egeland, deputy director and director of Human Rights Watch Europe

Minky Worden, media director

Jamie Fellner, senior counsel for the United States Program

Brad Adams, Asia Director

Scott Long, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Director

Sarah Leah Whitson, former Middle East and North Africa Director

Joe Stork, deputy director for Middle East and North Africa

Marc Garlasco, former staff member, resigned due to a scandal involving his Nazi memorabilia collection

Sharon Hom, member of the advisory board of Human Rights Watch/Asia

Tae-Ung Baik, former research consultant

Nabeel Rajab, member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch's Middle East Division

Tejshree Thapa, former Senior South Asia researcher

Ben Rawlence, journalist and former researcher

Sophie Richardson, former China Director (2006-2023)

Human Rights Watch publishes reports on many different topics and compiles an annual World Report presenting an overview of the worldwide state of human rights. It has been published by Seven Stories Press since 2006; the current edition, World Report 2020, was released in January 2020, and covers events of 2019. World Report 2020, HRW's 30th annual review of human rights practices around the globe, includes reviews of human rights practices and trends in nearly 100 countries, and an introductory essay by Executive Director Kenneth Roth, "China's Global Threat to Human Rights". HRW has reported extensively on subjects such as the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the excessive breadth of U.S. sex offender registries and their application to juveniles.

In the summer of 2004, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University in New York became the depository institution for the Human Rights Watch Archive, an active collection that documents decades of human rights investigations around the world. The archive was transferred from the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado, Boulder. It includes administrative files, public relations documents, and case and country files. With some exceptions for security considerations, the Columbia University community and the public have access to field notes, taped and transcribed interviews with alleged victims of human rights violations, video and audiotapes, and other materials documenting HRW's activities since its founding in 1978 as Helsinki Watch. Some parts of the HRW archive are not open to researchers or to the public, including the records of the meetings of the board of directors, the executive committee, and the various subcommittees, limiting historians' ability to understand the organization's internal decision-making.

HRW has been criticized for perceived bias by the national governments it has investigated for human rights abuses. Some sources allege HRW is biased against Israel in its coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. In 2014, two Nobel Peace Laureates, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel and Mairead Maguire, wrote a letter signed by 100 other human rights activists and scholars criticizing HRW for its revolving-door hiring practices with the U.S. government, its failure to denounce the U.S. practice of extrajudicial rendition, its endorsement of the U.S. 2011 military intervention in Libya, and its silence during the 2004 Haitian coup d'état.

In 2020, HRW's board of directors discovered that HRW accepted a $470,000 donation from Saudi real estate magnate Mohamed Bin Issa Al Jaber, owner of a company HRW "had previously identified as complicit in labor rights abuse", under the condition that the donation not be used to support LGBT advocacy in the Middle East and North Africa. After The Intercept reported the donation, it was returned, and HRW issued a statement that accepting it was "deeply regrettable".

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Human Rights Watch ( HRW) is an international non-governmental organization headquartered in New York City that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policymakers, companies, and individual human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners.

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“Human Rights Watch (HRW).” Ngomonitor, www.ngo-monitor.org/ngos/human_rights_watch_hrw_/.

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Introduction

Human Rights Watch is a powerful NGO, with a massive budget, close links to Western governments, and significant influence in international institutions. Its publications reflect the absence of professional standards, research methodologies, and military and legal expertise, as well as a deep-seated ideological bias against Israel.

Profile

Country/Territory

United States

Website
www.hrw.org

Founded

1978 as Helsinki Watch

Registration

Based in New York, headed by Kenneth Roth (Executive Director since 1993)

Funding

In 2017, total revenue was $74.8 million; total expenses were $76.4 million. Funding is not fully transparent, with the HRW website only listing some organizations that provide "partnership and support" including: Open Society Institute, Ford Foundation, the Oak Foundation, among others.

Claims to "accept no government funds, directly or indirectly." Following criticism from NGO Monitor over massive support from Oxfam Novib, which receives the vast majority of its budget from the Dutch government, HRW added language to its website, saying: "we accept no government funds from these foundations, only privately sourced revenues." This assertion cannot be independently verified.

In 2017, HRW received $10,000 from Rockefeller Brothers Foundation for its "Israel/Palestine program."

Between 2015-2017, HRW received $3.3 million from the Ford Foundation.

In 2009, HRW held a fundraising dinner in Saudi Arabia, using HRW's anti-Israel bias and the specter of "pro-Israel pressure groups" to solicit funds from "prominent members of Saudi society." At the event, Sarah Leah Whitson, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division, boasted that HRW allegations of human rights violations were instrumental in the discredited Goldstone "investigation" of the 2009 Gaza conflict.

Withdrawal of donor support, as seen in a 15% drop in income between 2009 and 2010, was mitigated by a 10-year, $100 million donation from billionaire George Soros announced in September 2010.

Activities

Systematic NGO Monitor analyses demonstrate that HRW disproportionately focuses on condemnations of Israel and that publications related to Israel often lack credibility. HRW also promotes an agenda based solely on the Palestinian narrative of victimization and Israeli aggression.

Uses distorted legal rhetoric to repeatedly accuses Israel of "war crimes," "[s]erious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law," "collective punishment," and fostering a "culture of impunity." Applies unique standards to Israel as part of its broader delegitimization campaign.

Promotes a Palestinian "right of return," which, if implemented, would effectually mean the elimination of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people.

Lobbies the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and other international frameworks, promoting false, distorted, and unverifiable allegations against Israel. Played a major role in the creation of the eventually discredited Goldstone report, submitting numerous statements to the commission equating Israel to Hamas and falsely accusing Israel of "willfully" killing civilians.

On June 30, 2017, Omar Shakir, HRW's Israel and Palestine Director, spoke at the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) "Forum to Mark Fifty Years of Occupation," stating that Israel "has effectively turned Gaza into an open air prison."

Shakir spoke at a hearing in Congress on June 8, 2017 on "how persistent human rights violations, systematic impunity, discrimination and a hyper-militarized environment affect the lives of the Palestinian children growing up under a military occupation with no end in sight." The event was sponsored by Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) as part of their "No Way to Treat a Child" campaign; both DCI-P and AFSC promote BDS campaigns against Israel.

On June 4, 2017, HRW released a statement on "50 Years of Occupation Abuses" accusing Israel of "major violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law" and "war crimes." The statement further calls upon the International Criminal Court to "open a formal investigation into serious crimes committed in Israel and Palestine." (Omar Shakir also posted the report in video form on Twitter.)

In March 2017, Children's Rights Advocacy Director Jo Becker was the featured speaker at a press conference to launch a Policy Note by Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict. Watchlist urged the UN Secretary General to add the "Israel Defense Forces" to the list of "parties known to commit grave violations against children."
In 2015, there was a concerted but failed NGO campaign, led by HRW, to include the Israeli army on the list.

In December 2010, HRW published a report, "Separate and Unequal," accusing Israel of discriminating against Palestinians in the West Bank on the "basis of race, ethnicity, and national origin" and advancing a BDS agenda.

HRW was an active participant in the 2001 Durban conference, which crystallized the strategy of delegitimizing Israel as "an apartheid regime" through international isolation based on the South African model.

BDS Activities

HRW initiated a failed public campaign with alongside Palestinian efforts, calling on FIFA to take punitive measures against Israel and "require the IFA to stop holding games inside the settlements and to stop allowing fields and halls in the settlements to be used for official competitions." The campaign included multiple articles, extensive social media posts, and lobbying of the UN.

On June 13, 2018, HRW issued a press statement accusing Israel of "apparent war crimes in Gaza" during the Great March of Return. The statement demanded that "Third countries should impose targeted sanctions" against senior Israeli officials (emphasis added).

On September 12, 2017, HRW published a report on "Israeli Law and Banking in West Bank Settlements," calling for banks "to comply with their own human rights responsibilities by ceasing settlement-related activities," as by "providing services to and in settlements, which are illegal under international humanitarian law (IHL), and partnering with developers in new construction projects, Israeli banks are making existing settlements more sustainable, enabling the expansion of their built-up area and the take-over of Palestinian land, and furthering the de facto annexation of the territory."

On November 21, 2016, Bashi sent a letter to the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, praising the latest efforts to establish a UN boycott of Israel, and offering three specific companies to be included on a nascent UN blacklist.
In November 2017, HRW issued a press release applauding the database for "build[ing] pressure on businesses."

On January 19, 2016, published "Occupation Inc." a 162-page report calling for businesses to cease operations in Israeli West Bank settlements, constituting a de-facto call for a boycott of Israel. Coinciding with HRW's publication, Kathleen Peratis, co-chair of HRW's Middle East North Africa Advisory Committee and emerita Board of Trustees member, penned a pro-BDS article in Ha'aretz.

Criticism from Founder

Due to the organization's failures, founder Robert Bernstein published an article in the New York Times ("Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast," October 19, 2009) strongly criticizing the organization for ignoring severe human rights violations in closed societies, for its anti-Israel bias, and for "issuing reports...that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state."

Bernstein expanded on these ideas in a lecture at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (November 2010), noting, "Human Rights Watch's attacks on almost every issue [have] become more and more hostile [toward Israel]."

Key Staff

Many HRW officials, including those working on Israel, have a history of ideological bias:

During the 2014 Gaza War, director Ken Roth obsessively tweeted about the conflict. Roth's tweets were characterized by significant levels of sarcasm, vitriol, and deep-seated hostility toward Israel.
In July 2006, in responding to a critique of HRW's reporting of the Lebanon War, Roth stated: "An eye for an eye - or, more accurately in this case, twenty eyes for an eye - may have been the morality of some more primitive moment. But it is not the morality of international humanitarian law..." The New York Sun decried this statement as a "slur on the Jewish religion itself that is breathtaking in its ignorance... To suggest that Judaism is a 'primitive' religion incompatible with contemporary morality is to engage in supersessionism, the de-legitimization of Judaism, the basis of much antisemitism."

In October 2016, HRW hired Omar Shakir to serve as its "Israel and Palestine Country Director." Shakir is a consistent supporter of a one-state framework and advocate for BDS campaigns against Israel. In February 2017, Shakir was denied a work visa by the Israeli government, but was ultimately allowed into Israel in April 2017.

In 2009, Sarah Leah Whitson, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division, visited Libya, claiming to have discovered a "Tripoli spring." She praised Muammar Qaddafi's son Seif Islam as a leading reformer and for creating an "expanded space for discussion and debate."
Whitson published a 2011 op-ed on The Huffington Post, "A Matter of Civil Rights," abusing the legacy of the US Civil Rights Movement to single-out and advance hatred towards Israel. In the op-ed, Whitson maintained: "We do no honor to [Dr. Martin Luther] King's legacy by supporting policies that promote racial discrimination and segregation." Whitson also employed racial stereotyping in race-baiting American Jews, stating: "And why should American Jews, who have a history of deep engagement with the U.S. civil rights movement, support settlements built on these kinds of laws and policies in Israel?"

In 2011, Kathleen Peratis, co-chair of the Advisory Committee of HRW's Middle East and North Africa Division, visited Gaza and met with several Hamas officials. Hamas is a designated terror organization by Israel, the U.S., EU, and Canada. In her article about the visit, Peratis describes her experience exploring smuggling tunnels from Gaza into Egypt with members of Hamas.

In September 2009, "senior military analyst" Marc Garlasco was revealed to be an obsessive collector of Nazi memorabilia. He was suspended and then dismissed, but his reports were not withdrawn. As shown in a Sunday Times (UK) article, "Nazi scandal engulfs Human Rights Watch" (March 28, 2010), the Garlasco issue was indicative of far deeper problems at HRW.

HRW Total Expenses 2005-2016

All information based on 990 Forms submitted to the IRS unless otherwise noted. Financial year spans from July 1st-June 30th.

Related Articles

In The Media
Professor Gerald Steinberg writes a letter to the Australian Financial Review regarding Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

Archive of Articles about Human Rights Watch (HRW)

Further Reading

Human Rights Watch director (and former lawyer) Ken Roth clocks up 25 years Lisa Murray. Australian Financial Review, July 30, 2018

Human Rights Watch Continues to Betray its Founding Principles Joshua S. Block, Jerusalem Post, June 27, 2018

Why Israel Is Right To Expel Human Rights Watch's Omar Shakir Petra Marquardt-Bigman, Forward, May 11, 2018

Human Rights Watch takes its campaign against Israel to Fifa Gerald Steinberg, Jewish Chronicle, January 19, 2017

Closing the UN Palestinian Propaganda Committee Gerald Steinberg, The Tower, April 25, 2016

Should Human Rights Watch be Trusted? Michael Rubin, Commentary Magazine, September 3, 2014

The Twitter Hypocrisy of Kenneth Roth Jonathan Foreman, Commentary Magazine, September 1, 2014

The Faux 'Investigations' of Human Rights Watch Sarah Garfinkel, JNS.org, July 23, 2014

Why HRW's Ken Roth Won't Condemn Kidnapping of Israeli Teens Hillel Neuer, The Times of Israel, June 16, 2014

The Hypocrisy of Human Rights Watch Keane Bhatt, North American Congress on Latin America, February 5, 2014

Ariel Sharon and HRW's Anti-Israel Obsession Gerald M. Steinberg, The Times of Israel, January 12, 2014

Human Rights Watch Protects Arab Tyrants Gerald M. Steinberg, Middle East Quarterly (Summer 2013, pp. 49-58), July 30, 2013

Human Rights Watch Spins Another Israel-Hater into a Hero Gerald M. Steinberg, The Times of Israel, May 14, 2013

The facade of expertise at Human Rights Watch Gerald Steinberg, Times of Israel, June 24, 2012

Human Rights Watch's Lost Credibility Gerald Steinberg, Algemeiner, February 26, 2012

Human Rights Watch's belated 'Arab Spring' Gerald Steinberg and Naftali Balanson, Jerusalem Post, August 4, 2011

Human Rights As A Weapon Gerald M. Steinberg, Forbes, January 28, 2009

Soft Powers Play Hardball: NGOs Wage War against Israel Gerald M. Steinberg, Israel Affairs (October 2006, Vol 12.4, pp. 748-768), October 1, 2006

Real Shots Maurice Ostroff, Jerusalem Post, September 10, 2006

65 Years Ago: Cheap Shot at HRW Richard J. Goldstone, Jerusalem Post, September 7, 2006

Ken Roth's Blood Libel Gerald Steinberg, Jerusalem Post, August 26, 2006

Abusing the Legacy of the Holocaust: The Role of NGOs in Exploiting Human Rights to Demonize Israel Gerald M. Steinberg, Jewish Political Studies Review (Fall 2004, Vol 16:3-4, pp.59-72)

Human "Wrongs" Gerald M. Steinberg, The National Review, July 25, 2002

The Moral Imperative Gerald M. Steinberg, Jerusalem Post, February 24, 2002

In The Media
Professor Gerald Steinberg writes a letter to the Australian Financial Review regarding Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

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The condemnation by Joe Stork of Human Rights Watch (HRW) of Israels response to rocket bombardment from Gaza exploits and distorts international law. His claim that Gaza remains occupied is a politically based fiction designed to negate Israels legal and moral right to self-defense.

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“Our History.” Human Rights Watch, 26 Mar. 2014, www.hrw.org/our-history.

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Human Rights Watch began in 1978 with the creation of Helsinki Watch, designed to support the citizens groups formed throughout the Soviet bloc to monitor government compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Helsinki Watch adopted a methodology of publicly "naming and shaming" abusive governments through media coverage and through direct exchanges with policymakers. By shining the international spotlight on human rights violations in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Helsinki Watch contributed to the dramatic democratic transformations of the late 1980s.

Americas Watch was founded in 1981 while bloody civil wars engulfed Central America. Relying on extensive on-the-ground fact-finding, Americas Watch not only addressed abuses by government forces, but applied international humanitarian law to investigate and expose war crimes by rebel groups. In addition to raising its concerns in the affected countries, Americas Watch also critically examined the role played by foreign governments, particularly the United States, in providing military and political support to abusive regimes.

In rapid succession in the 1980s, Asia Watch (1985), Africa Watch (1988), and Middle East Watch (1989) were added to what was then known as "The Watch Committees." In 1988, the organization formally adopted the all-inclusive name Human Rights Watch.

New human rights challenges in the 1990s led to important innovations in the work of Human Rights Watch. Its reporting on the 1991 Persian Gulf War for the first time addressed violations of the laws of war in bombing campaigns. Advocacy targets were expanded to give greater attention to the United Nations and regional bodies such as the European Union. "Ethnic cleansing" and genocide in Rwanda and the Balkans prompted the need for both real-time reporting of atrocities and in-depth documentation of cases to press for international prosecutions, which became possible for the first time in the 1990s. Human Rights Watch has supported and critiqued the international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, sought prosecutions of abusive leaders including Augusto Pinochet of Chile and Hissene Habre of Chad, and played a prominent role in the drafting of the Rome Statute to create the International Criminal Court.

At the same time, Human Rights Watch broadened and strengthened its work on the rights of women, children, refugees, and migrant workers, bringing a human rights perspective to such issues as domestic violence, trafficking, rape as a war crime, and child soldiers. The organization found new ways to investigate rights abuses in closed societies such as Saudi Arabia and North Korea. It helped spotlight previously ignored topics such as the rights of gays and lesbians. It examined the international arms trade and the role of business in human rights, producing ground-breaking studies, for instance, on rights abuses in the oil, gold, and meatpacking industries.

Human Rights Watch in 1997 shared in the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and it played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions.

The 21st century has brought new challenges. The September 11, 2001 attacks and their aftermath highlighted the need for new forms of pressure on terrorist groups and their supporters and close monitoring of counterterrorism laws, policies, and practices that infringe upon basic human rights. The HIV/AIDS pandemic led to the creation of a Human Rights Watch program devoted to human rights and health.

Human Rights Watch is increasingly applying its research methodology to economic, social, and cultural rights, particularly in the areas of education and housing. Human Rights Watch has also begun using statistical research, satellite photography, and bomb-data analysis, among other new methodologies. Combining its traditional on-the-ground fact-finding with new technologies and innovative advocacy keeps Human Rights Watch on the cutting edge of promoting respect for human rights worldwide.

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Human Rights Watch began in 1978 with the creation of Helsinki Watch, designed to support the citizens groups formed throughout the Soviet bloc to monitor government compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Helsinki Watch adopted a methodology of publicly "naming and shaming" abusive governments through media coverage and through direct exchanges with policymakers.

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1. Now that I know more about my organization, I think that their work is making a positive impact on the 90 countries that they help out because they are helping them fight for their rights that they deserve
2. I wonder how long it takes for them to  help out a whole country on getting the rights that they deserve
3. One challenge that my organization faces is the governments of those countries that try to go against the organization and the organization has to figure out a way to get by them so that they can help people that are in need
4. My organizations greatest strength is their fact finding because they're really good at finding evidence and facts about things that are going on in different places and they publish them so that other people can see what's going on and they can also help out
5. My organizations greatest weakness is choosing which places to help out or to focus on because a lot of places need help and they could only do so much that it takes time to help out other places

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I chose this organization because it was really interesting on what they do to help out other countries that are fighting for human rights.  They help many refugees, children, and political prisoners from different places.  They also stop human rights abusers and they go against governments that don’t give the rights to people that they deserve. This organization helps out many people each year and they are known for their excellent fact finding.  They are also a non-governmental organization which helps them so that the government doesn’t take charge of it and do whatever they want with that organization.  They help out many places that are in need because of people that abuse their human rights.  Another thing is that this organization is funded by other organizations and by the Better Business Bureau which helps them a lot in their research funds. This organization has done so much for many people and that’s why I chose it.